Viruses/Worms News

Malware growth triples in first half of 2009

Friday, July 24, 2009

The growth of unique malware has nearly tripled in the first half of 2009 compared to 2008, according to web security researchers from antivirus firm McAfee.

In total, the firm has spotted 1.2 million unique pieces of malware so far this year, nearly as much as produced in all of 2008 and almost six times the amount of malware in all of 2007, reported the McAfee Avert Labs blog.

Cybercriminals use malware to infect PCs with malicious code that can steal data for identity theft, sending out spam and distributing malware to other PCs.

As researcher David Marcus noted, the business of malware is stealing and right now business is very good for cybercriminals.

Malware growth over the past three years confirms Moore's Law, which states that the power of computing grows at an exponential rate, Marcus observed.

"The sheer growth [of malware] is even challenging Moore's Law a bit," he said.

Cybercriminals have learned how to exploit the curiosity of web surfers through social engineering techniques, luring them to websites hosting Trojan malware by promising downloads of music, videos and pornography.

Lately, malware has been spreading on websites promising visitors downloads of the latest Harry Potter movie or a "peephole" video of ESPN reporter Erin Andrews.